P. 117: "Insurrection is an art, just as war is an art, and so are other varieties of art. It is subject to certain rules, the neglect of which will lead to the ruin of the party guilty of neglecting them. These rules, being logical consequences of the nature of the parties and of the circumstances with which one is dealing in such cases, are so clear and simple that the brief experience of 1848 was sufficient to teach them to the Germans. First, never play with insurrection unless you are prepared to go through with it to the very end (literally: to reckon with all the consequences of this game). Insurrection is an equation with magnitudes of the highest degree of indefiniteness, whose value can change daily. The military forces against which you have to act are wholly on the side of organization, discipline, and traditional authority; if the insurgents cannot muster more forces against their opponent, they will be defeated and destroyed. Second, once the insurrection has begun, you must act with the greatest determination and go over to the offensive. Defense is the death of every armed insurrection; with defense it perishes before it has even measured its strength against the enemy. You must take your opponent by surprise, while their troops are scattered; work daily for new successes, however small; maintain the moral superiority that the first successful uprising has brought you; draw to your side those vacillating elements that always follow the strongest impulse and always go over to the safer side; force your enemies to retreat before they can concentrate their forces against you; in short, in the words of Danton, the greatest master of revolutionary tactics known to history: de l'audace, de l'audace, encore de l'audace!" (118).

Written in January–February 1917
First published in 1930
in Lenin Miscellany XIV

Printed from the manuscript